Thank you for those simply wonderful Reviews! They make me all happy and tingly-warm inside. LIKE HUGS. :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Lewis Carroll, Disney, and Tim Burton do.

Inspirational Song: "Na Na Na" - My Chemical Romance (my older brother is purely obsessed with this song right now. When you hear something 24/7, it tends to get stuck in your head.)

Alice politely asked their leading horses to take them to the Tea Party. They willingly obliged and the creatures even made haste for their passengers. The carriage rolled and rocked about an awful lot, though. The horses knew a "shortcut" that just so happened to pass through the Rickety Rainforest. (An odd name, but exceptionally accurate.)

It seemed Time was on their side today because it felt like they made it to the March Hare's early enough. The stagecoach stopped right at the edge of the trees. Hatter climbed out first and held the door open for Alice while stretching his limbs, glancing at the pink sky. The March Hare and Mallymkun were already sitting at the tea table, attempting to make a house made of spoons and forks, and surprisingly, they were doing very well. Until the March Hare noticed Hatter and Alice standing there, screamed, and jumped on the table, causing the large structure of spoons and forks to fall. Mallymkun sighed and put her head in her paws.

"Hello again, friends!" Hatter headed for his chair at the front end of the table and Alice followed. "We were in the mood for some nice cups of tea and chit-chat with a particular Dormouse and March Hare." He sat down. "So, so. How are we all doing this fine. . . " Confused, Hatter took out his pocket watch. "Ah." He put it back inside his jacket. "Noon?"

"Someone's in a good mood. . . " Mallymkun murmured.

Chessur appeared at Alice's side, starling Thackery. "And why not be, dear dormouse?" He grinned.

Mallymkun stood up. "I don't know. . . " She fidgeted. "Ya ever get tired of doing the same things every other day? Yes, Alice is back now and all. . . " She saw Alice's confused expression and Hatter's frustrated one. "Not like that's a bad thing or anything," she added quickly. "What I mean to say is, are we just goin' to carry on the way we were before? What 'appens now?"

Hatter jumped up. "Whatever we want! There is no one to stop us! No Bloody Big Heads! No futile decrees!" Getting into an excited rant now, Hatter jumped on the table. "We can do whatever, wherever, whenever, however, anywhere-"

Alice yanked on Hatter's pant leg. "Hatter."

Chessur chuckled and flew over to a chair near the March Hare and perched on its back.

Hatter stared down at Alice and regained his focus. He looked around and successfully determined that he was not several feet taller than he was five moments ago; he was on the table. "Oh, err. . ." He sat back down. "Like I was saying, we can do whatever we feel we're up to, Mally."

"I suppose. . . " She still seemed a bit upset, which was really curious compared to her usual spunky, energy-feasting self. "But what to do? It's not like you get somethin' new to entertain yerselves with every other day."

"Oh! That reminds me." Alice turned to her friends, a question in mind. "You know that I've visited Wonderland three times before this, correct?" They nodded. "I was just curious. . . how often do you come across visitors like myself in these parts? There has to have been at least a handful of them."

"A handful!" Thackery hooted. "It's not like we can just scoop 'em all up! But with pishalver, yes, I suppose you could do that. . . " He widened his eyes in revelation as the Cheshire Cat moved a spot over.

Alice rephrased her question. "What I meant to say was, you've had to have met at least a fine amount of visitors?"

"Then you should have said what you meant," Mallymkun murmured.

"Pardon?" She hadn't quite heard her.

"Nothing," the dormouse said with a smile.

Hatter claimed her attention. "Alice, people from the Otherworld don't exactly drop in from week to week. We rarely get them at all."

She turned back to the man. "Then how is it that I somehow wound up in Wonderland three times, all on accident?" The chances of her arriving in such a spectacular, wondrous, and mysterious place one time was very unlikely, let alone three times!

Hatter nodded. "You were a special case. Our best guess, well, really our only guess, is that Underland wanted you. Underland wanted you stay and live here, in your. . . Wonderland."

Alice gazed around her. No two trees were the same shade of blue, red, orange, or any other color. The sky and weather seemed to always know what mood one was in. The creatures of this strange land were truly astonishing themselves. Rather than ponder the topic of how a place could want a person, Alice wondered why a place so amazing would want her. She was always so different, so unusual, so bold, so strange. . .

Oh.

Mallymkun looked at her, confused. "Alice, 'ow come you started calling this place Wonderland, any'ow?"

Chessur nodded, which was basically him lowering his hover a bit. "I had wondered the same. . ."

"Oh, err. . . " She laughed nervously. "Well, when I first came here, I was just a young girl. So I suppose I either heard the name wrong or I couldn't quite pronounce it correctly." She smiled. "I just got so used to calling it Wonderland, that I couldn't really think of this place as anything but it."

The Dormouse nodded thoughtfully.

Alice turned to Hatter. "So. . . when you do get visitors, what do they do? Do they go to the White Queen? Do they make their own homes? Do they move in with someone else? Do they-"

"They leave."

She noticed how piercing his eyes had turned. "Excuse me?"

"They leave." He sighed and took his hat off, placing it on the table. His hair was unruly and matted. "The people from the Otherworld aren't used to how things. . . run. . . down here. They get scared, angry, upset, confused, or frightened. Or in worst cases, hopeless. They don't know what to do once their whole world has been. . . " His eyes turned red and his voice went deep. "Destroyed." He stood up. "Shattered! Lost! Burned to ye ground from 'ich is grew from!"

He gripped the edges of the table cloth, ready to throw all the teapots and plates in the air. Before he could do anything rash, the March Hare leaped onto the table, ran down to Hatter, and threw hot tea in his face. Alice cringed, but watched, amazed, as Hatter only returned to his normal self. His eyes turned to a sallow green and he cleared his throat. "Thank you, Thackery."

The Hare nodded and returned to his seat.

Hatter slowly turned to Alice, only for her to see his shameful eyes. "I'm very sorry, Alice."

She put her hand on his arm. "It's fine. Really." He still seemed upset. "Could you answer another question of mine, if it doesn't disturb you?"

He nodded, eager to redeem himself.

"How many people from the Otherworld have stayed in Wonderland, other than myself?" She removed her hand from his arm.

Hatter, Mally, and Chessur all thought for a while, then gave each other a sad look. "None." They all said.

Alice hadn't meant to cause this little tea party to depress, she'd just had a few questions. Even in another world, I manage to wreck any festive mood. . . Nice going, Alice. She took a small sip of her sweet tea and then a bite of one of the many cakes. Really, why was there so much cake? Usually, there were only a few individuals at the Tea Party. What could they possibly do with all this cake?

. . . . .

Alice had an idea of how to get everyone back into their festive moods.

She turned to the March Hare, seated beside her. "So, Thackery." She had never called him this before. His ears shot up and he gave her a crazy-err, normal look. "What type of cake is this? I'm just curious; it's incredibly rich."

His brow furrowed. "Rich! It's a piece of cake!"

Mallymkun shook her head. "She means tasty."

"Well she could'a just said that!" The March Hare turned to Alice, fork in paw. "It's buttonberry."

"Hmmm. . . " She forked up some of the pink buttonberry cake and swung it around. Hatter was eyeing her strangely. She purposefully aimed her fork towards the March Hare and tipped it back a bit. . .

And "accidentally" flung it in his face.

Thackery's jaw hung low as the pink mush slowly slid down his face and then fell onto his plate. A moment of startled silence went by. . .

And then. . .

The March Hare screamed a high-pitched: "YEEEARGHHHH!" and seized a handful of cake in his paw. He held his paw back and threw the cake forcefully towards Alice. Luckily, she ducked. Unluckily for another, the buttonberry cake struck Hatter on the chest. He gaped at Alice, but then grinned. The milliner picked up his glass of sweet tea and hurled it at Chessur, who vanished lazily only to reappear at Mallymkun's side with a muffin. Unaware of the cat next to her, the dormouse jumped, taken aback, when something fell on her head. She looked up to see the Cheshire Cat wave daintily at her and disappear.

SMACK! Alice placed her hands on her neck to feel a warm pastry strewn all about it. She looked up to see the March Hare laughing at her. She grinned, picked up a mug of something, and threw it at him. It met him at the arm and he fell off his chair, still amused. She laughed, as well.

Looking around, Alice could only see cake and tea being thrown about. Everyone had a grin on their face and was happy again. You heard laughter and saw cake. This could have never happened in the Otherworld!

Mallymkun took shelter in her tea cup, taking inventory such as pastries and cakes with her. Hatter was trying to hit Chessur with silverware, but only failing. Alice watched as Thackery tried to get up, but managed to smack his head on the bottom of the table instead. Flustered, he jumped up and toppled the table over. The table cloth skimmed off the table and Mally jumped out of her tea cup before it could fall. Hatter jumped to the side, landing near to Alice. Chessur soared over to Mally and picked her up in paw. Thackery, now lying down by the mess, was somehow sleeping.

Alice looked at Hatter, them shielded from the others by the table on its side in between them. They crawled forward to each other, and when they were close enough, they both reached over the side of the table and picked up the first cake their hands met. They moved quickly, both eager to be the first one to make contact.

They wound up both slapping each other on the cheek with cake.

Hatter fell onto his back, laughing so hard he could barely breathe. His eyes were the color of the rainbow and he seemed so light at that moment that he could've soared upwards like the Cheshire Cat himself. Alice lost her balance and fell onto her side, laughing just as hard as the man next to her. She could hear the others laughing, as well.

Once her laughing died down a bit, she looked back at the Hatter. His laughing had stifled a bit, too. Hatter smiled at her contently, and his expression was sweeter than the all the cake splattered all over her dress. She scooted a tad closer to him and helped him sit up. The others were still laughing and having a good time, but these two were now in their own little, serene bubble. Until-

"Alice?" a man scoffed.

Alice stood up straight immediately, leaving Hatter on the ground. She knew that irritating voice all too well.

Standing at the edge of the trees in all tattered clothing was Lord Hamish Ascot.

Author/OP in me: . . . omg.

Rachel: Oh, I know. Think this might cause a bit of a conflict in this warm, little story?

Author/OP in me: Well, DUH it will. One: Hamish is in Wonderland. Two: I know it'll cause a MAJOR conflict and make the story a whole lot darker than it is now because I AM the Author! I know what will happen and when it will happen!

Rachel: . . . Slurvish, much?

~~ Reviews are appreciated. :) ~~